If you are familiar with the last thirty or so years of NASCAR racing, you might remember Alan Kulwicki’s “underbird” Hooters-sponsored #7 Ford Thunderbird. Kulwicki was a longer among NASCAR drivers, a guy who liked to be in control of most facets of the racing program, and that meant that he often shut down opportunities to drive for other teams in lieu of driving for himself. Every now and then, that meant that he was driving a plain white race car on race day, because the money had been coming from his own wallet. Hooters approached Kulwicki about a sponsorship deal after their previous driver couldn’t make a full-time schedule, and what was initially a one-race deal got lengthened out into the sponsor that carried him through to his untimely death in 1993.
The real-deal “underbird” race car is a top-tier NASCAR racer to the core. A 1987 Yugo covered in stickers and the Hooters livery is just about the polar opposite of a Thunderbird stocker, yet here we are, face-to-face with such a beast. And what should we make of it? It’s not a performer, it’s too accurate to be a spoof build, and it’s not cute enough to work on it’s own accord. Honestly, the only way we can approve of this Yugo is one of two ways. One involves seeing the vehicle in the universe of the “Cars” movie franchise, at which point the little Yugo looks like a kid in their hero’s jersey, hoping one day to be just like them.
But in real life, this is a 24 Hours of Lemons dream come true. The price won’t make the cut, but if you showed up with a NASCAR-liveried Yugo and know how to bribe a Lemons judge, surely you’ll be out on the track putting the little penalty box through it’s paces, revving it’s little heart out as it turns lap after lap. It kind of fits Kulwicki in a sense: the underdog that nobody really gave a shot, making it on the race course. That’d make a pretty neat “Cars” off-shoot, wouldn’t it?
Craigslist Link: 1987 Yugo GV
I’d rather watch a Yugo race (?) around Daytona than the cookie cutter cars that NASCAR mandates now. The empty seats posing as spectators don’t care…you might have to shorten the races to maybe…. 100 miles.
You mock that which you don’t understand!
Yugo’s rock.
Er, yeah, I don’t understand it either. I presume it’s a spoof build, although it’s VERY clean for that sort of joke. The fact that he includes a tow bar with it makes me think its builder also was thinking of something like LeMons.
You know why its called a Yugo?
Anyone offered a lift in one would say Yugo f*ck yourself….
all it needs is a Taurus SHO motor & some respect.
They made a van too……wego!
This little Yugo was the tow car of a NASCAR fan from Pittsburgh who was a diehard Allen Kulwiki fan he and his family would attend NASCAR races with this little car in tow behind their motorhome the sticker kit actually came from Alan Kulwiki\”s NASCAR shop and from what I understand after the untimely death of Allen Kulwiki he never attended another race. The car currently sits in my garage and gets a lot of respect the job was very well done and as far as a tow vehicle goes it pulls perfectly
They make a fix for this thing. Metal Shredder.